HSPA: High Speed Wireless Broadband

From HSDPA to HSUPA and beyond

HSPA: High Speed Wireless

Broadband
From HSDPA to HSUPA and Beyond
Introduction...................................................................................... 3
HSPA Explained............................................................................... 3
HSPA Technology............................................................................ 4
HSDPA ..............................................................................................................................................................................4
HSUPA ..............................................................................................................................................................................5
HSPA Terminals............................................................................... 5
HSPA Benefits.................................................................................. 6
HSPA Applications .......................................................................... 8
Introducing new applications.............................................................................................................................................8
Improving Existing applications......................................................................................................................................10
Driving new usage patterns..............................................................................................................................................10
HSPA Availability........................................................................... 11
HSPA Evolution ............................................................................. 12
Conclusion ..................................................................................... 12

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Introduction
From the first launches of UMTS service in the Japanese Market by NTT Docomo in 2002, UMTS has shown itself to be
the fastest growing cellular technology in history. As of August 2005, it is estimated that over 30 million subscribers
were using UMTS services globally. Services such as video telephony, video streaming, mobile TV and mobile e-mail
are now commonplace and the public awareness of the capabilities of 3G networks and terminals has helped considerably
in moving the public perception of the mobile terminal from a pure voice and text communication instrument to a
multimedia device. The levels of speed and interactivity offered improve utility to the end-user and significantly improve
productivity and opportunities for operators, end-users and enterprises.

The challenge facing the mobile telecommunications industry today is how to continually improve the end-user
experience, offer appealing services through a delivery mechanism which offers improved speed, service attractiveness
and service interaction. Possibly the most important improvement is the arrival of a new series of technologies referred to
as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA). These technologies will be available as a relatively straightforward upgrade to
existing UMTS networks and will offer improved bandwidth to the end-user, improved network capacity to the operator,
and improved interactivity for data applications.

This paper seeks to explain in everyday industry terms what HSPA is, what it can do and what the benefits to all industry
stakeholders will be. It is not an exhaustive technical description but an informational paper which seeks to raise industry
awareness of how HSPA will affect the mobile telecommunications industry.

HSPA Explained
High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is a generic term adopted by the UMTS Forum to refer to improvements in the UMTS
Radio Interface in the Releases 5 and 6 of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards. HSPA refers to both
the improvements made in the UMTS downlink, often referred to as High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and
the improvements made in the uplink, often referred to as High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) but also referred
to as Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH).

HSDPA enables data transmission speeds of up to 14.4Mbit/s per user. Both HSDPA and HSUPA can be implemented
in the standard 5 MHz carrier of UMTS networks and can co-exist with the first generation of UMTS networks based on
the 3GPP Release 99 (R99) standard. As HSPA standards refer uniquely to the access network, there is no change
required of the core network outside of the capacity increases that will be required to handle the expected increase in
traffic generated by HSPA.

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HSPA Technology
HSDPA
HSDPA introduces a number of new technical capabilities to the radio access network, which when combined offer a
significant improvement for both end users and operators. These capabilities are;
• A new common High Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH) which can be simultaneously shared by
multiple users,
• The use of a shorter Transmission Time Interval (TTI) of 2ms, which enables higher speed transmission in the
physical layer,
• The use of fast scheduling,
• The use of Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC),
• The use of fast retransmission based on fast Hybrid Automatic Response reQuest (HARQ) techniques.

The HS-DSCH is shared channel with a number of Spreading Factor 16 (SF-16) CDMA codes. Within each 2 ms TTI, a
constant spreading factor of 16 is used with a maximum of 15 parallel channels in the HS-DSCH. These channels may all
be assigned to one user during the TTI, or may be split amongst several HSDPA users. There is no Power Control with
HSDPA and the HS-DSCH is transmitted at a constant power while the modulation, the coding and the number of codes
are changed to adapt to the variations of radio conditions.

The shorter 2ms TTI (compared to TTI of between 10ms and 80ms in UMTS R99) means that the systems is more
reactive to changing user or radio conditions and can quickly allocate capacity to users.

Fast data traffic scheduling means that variations arising from changing radio conditions can be accommodated and that
the BTS is able to allocate as much of the particular cell’s capacity to a particular user for a short period of time. This
means that a user is able to receive as much data as radio conditions will allow. This capability is often compared to the
mechanisms used in Wireless LAN (WLAN) systems.

Adaptive Modulation Coding (AMC) with fast link adaptation means that the modulation and coding formats can be
changed in accordance with variations in the channel conditions, leading to a higher data rate for users with favourable
radio conditions. Whereas UMTS Release 99 used only Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation, HSDPA
provides the ability to use 16-QAM when the link is sufficiently robust, which can lead to a significant increase in data
rate.

Fast H-ARQ enables erroneous packets to be resent within a 10ms window, ensuring that the TCP throughput remains
high. In addition, in HSDPA the mechanisms for ARQ are moved to the BTS (from the RNC in R99). By using these
approaches, all users, whether near or far from the base station, are able to receive the optimum data rate.

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HSUPA
Similarly to HSDPA in the downlink, HSUPA defines a new radio interface for the uplink communication. The overall
goal is to improve the coverage and throughput as well as to reduce the delay of the uplink dedicated transport channels.
From a 3GPP point of view, the first set of standards was approved in December 2004, and performance aspects were
finalised during the summer of 2005. E-DCH is the name adopted in 3GPP for HSUPA which is in 3GPP Release 6.
Key technical capabilities introduced with HSUPA are;
• A new dedicated uplink channel,
• Introduction of H-ARQ,
• Fast Node B scheduling.

Unlike HSDPA, HSUPA remains based on a dedicated channel. A series of new channels are introduced for both
signaling and traffic to improve overall uplink capabilities.
Like HSDPA, HSUPA introduces fast retransmissions based on the Hybrid ARQ Protocol for error recovery at the
physical layer.
The Node B scheduling enables the Node B to control, within the limits set by the RNC, the set of Transport Format
Codes from which the UE may choose. This will enable improved coverage and capacity in the uplink.

HSPA Terminals
HSDPA will require new terminals. However, HSDPA and R99 capabilities will co-exist in these terminals and will be
compatible with UMTS R99 networks. A typical upgrade strategy for an operator will be to upgrade the network to
HSDPA progressively so that for a significant period both standards will be in operation. Therefore, all new terminals
should support both R99 and HSDPA. The first terminals will be a data card enabling 1.8 Mbit/s of peak data rate
(Category 12) and 3.6 Mbit/s of peak data rate (Category 6).

Max number of HS-

HS-DSCH Minimum inter
DSCH codes (SF16) Modulation Max peak rate
Category TTI interval
received
Category 1 5 3 QPSK & 16-QAM 1.2Mbps

Category 2 5 3 QPSK & 16-QAM 1.2Mbps

Category 3 5 2 QPSK & 16-QAM 1.8Mbps

Category 4 5 2 QPSK & 16-QAM 1.8Mbps

Category 5 5 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 3.6Mbps

Category 6 5 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 3.6Mbps

Category 7 10 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 7.3Mbps

Category 8 10 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 7.3Mbps

Category 9 15 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 10.2Mbps

Category 10 15 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 14.4Mbps

Category 11 5 2 QPSK only 900kbps

Category 12 5 1 QPSK only 1.8Mbps

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 Figure 1: HSDPA Capability per 3GPP Category

HSUPA will also require new terminals. Similarly, they will co-exist with R99 capabilities and will be compatible with
UMTS R99 networks. First HSUPA capable terminals are foreseen for 2H 2006. Like HSDPA, the capability of the
terminal has been standardized per category.

E-DCH Maximum Minimum Support for Maximum Maximum number

category number of E- spreading 10 and 2 ms number of bits of bits of an E-DCH
DCH codes factor TTI EDCH of an E-DCH transport block
transmitted transport block transmitted within
transmitted a 2 ms E-DCH TTI
within a 10 ms
E-DCH TTI
Category 1 1 SF4 10 ms only 7296 -

Category 2 2 SF4 10 ms 14592 2919

and 2ms

Category 3 2 SF4 10 ms only 14592 -

Category 4 2 SF2 10 ms 20000 5837

and 2ms

Category 5 2 SF2 10 ms only 20000 -

Category 6 4 SF2 10 ms 20000 11520

and 2ms

Figure 2: HSUPA Capability per 3GPP Category

Theoretically, the maximum physical throughput is 5.5 Mbit/s for the Uplink, which leads to 4 Mbit/s at the application
layer. Recent studies have concluded that the use of HARQ with Node-B scheduling and 2ms TTI can lead the following
improvements when compared with R99 systems;
• 50-70% improvement in UL capacity,
• 20-55% reduction in end-user packet call delay,
• Around 50% improvement in user packet call throughput.

HSPA Benefits
The key benefits of HSPA can be categorized in 3 ways;
• Improved speed for end user applications
• Improved interactivity for end user applications,

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 • Improved network capacity for the operator.

UMTS networks deployed based on the 3GPP release 99 standard offer a maximum data throughput per user of
384kbit/s. With HSDPA there is the possibility to offer the end user up to 14.4Mbit/s. How often or how many users will
be able to achieve this throughput will obviously depend on network and radio conditions as well as the type of terminal
being used. A more reasonable scenario will see a large number of users with a category 6 HSDPA terminal allowing
them to communicate at data speeds up to 3.6Mbit/s. This is already almost a factor of 10 increase from the maximum
throughput available to UMTS users today. This will bring new applications such as high quality video streaming as well
as faster music and entertainment downloads, and improved time savings for ubiquitous corporate email services. Note
that the peak rate of 14.4 Mbps occurs with a coding rate of 4/4, 16 QAM and all 15 codes in use. Despite these
capabilities, researchers and developers are working on additional enhancements. First devices will support five codes
with a peak rate of 3.6 Mbps. Subsequent devices will support ten to fifteen codes with a peak rate of 10.7 Mbps. Other
enhancements include two-branch diversity reception and equalizers in mobile devices. These improvements will occur
one to two years after the initial deployment of HSDPA. Simulations show these features to further improve user data
rates and network capacity. Further evolution of HSPDA peak data rates can be achieved with multiple-input multiple-
output (MIMO) antenna techniques of 3GPP Rel.’6. No changes are required to the networks except increaded capacity
within the infrastructure to support the higher bandwidth.

One of the major improvements with HSPA technology is the improvement in network latency or round trip delay for
data applications. First deployments of HSDPA indicate a round trip delay of as low as 60ms, meaning that many real
time interactive services can be delivered over HSDPA. This will be true for Voice and Video but also for applications
such as multi-user gaming where immediate real time interaction with other users is key to stimulate high levels of game
usage. This will be the key enabler for the beginning of a new era of mobile multimedia over UMTS networks and
terminals.

With the introduction of new improved coding and modulation with HSPA, the spectral efficiency of the access network
is much improved. Early tests and measurements indicate that the data capacity available in the standard UMTS carrier
bandwidth of 5MHz is increased by a factor of 5 with the upgrade to HSDPA. This will offer the operator a much
improved cost structure for offering data services with the cost per bit reducing significantly. This should help drive
adoption rates of mobile data services as the cost to deliver the services to a wider audience will be significantly
decreased.

The figure below illustrates that HSDPA maximizes data throughputs, maximizes capacity and minimizes delays. For
users, this translates to better network performance under loaded conditions, faster application performance, a greater
range of applications that function well, and increased productivity.

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 Profil 1:
Profile 1 Low
Low-resolution
-resolution image
image
4 Application
GPRS
GPRS CS
CS ¾
¾ 4 sec
sec Application
GERAN
GERAN MCS9
MCS9 3 sec
3 sec
UMTS-HSDPA
UMTS-HSDPA Saving:
Saving: Data
Data size:
size:
UMTS 0.9 0.3
0.3 sec
sec (33%)
UMTS 0.9 sec
sec (33%)
HSPDA
HSPDA 0.6
0.6 sec
sec 20 kBytes
1 2 3 4 sec

Profil 2:
Profile 2 High -resolution image
High-resolution image
GPRS CS ¾ 4 sec
GERAN MCS9 3 sec UMTS-HSDPA Saving: 125 kBytes
UMTS 0.9 sec 2 sec (62%)
HSPDA 0.6 sec

4 8 12 16 sec

Profil 3:
Profile 3 PowerPoint presentation/video
PowerPoint clipclip
presentation/video download
download
GPRS CS ¾ 4 sec
EDGS MCS9 3 sec UMTS-HSDPA Saving: 3 MBytes
UMTS 0.9 sec 54.9 sec (81%)
HSPDA 0.6 sec

60 120 180 240 300 sec

Assumption: Typical
Assumption: data rates
Typical UMTS
-
data rates 384 kilobit/sec, HSPDA 2 Megabit/sec

Figure 3. Up to 81% download time saving with HSDPA!

HSPA Applications
The new network and terminal capabilities introduced by HSPA will drive new applications and stimulate new usage
patterns. At the UMTS Forum we believe that these new applications and behaviors will fall into 3 categories;

• Introduction of new applications,

• Improvement of existing applications,
• Stimulation of new usage patterns.

Introducing new applications

New data applications require varying bandwidth to deliver the required end user experience. Mobile data applications
can require anything from a couple of kilobits for text messaging to many hundreds of kilobits for high quality video
streaming or conferencing.

As the network and terminal capabilities improve and the economics of delivering mobile broadband improve, the
number of applications that can be delivered is increased as well as the number of users that can access these
applications. This will provide a major stimulus to the mobile data market.

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 Device
Capabilities • Video Conferencing
• Movie Downloads
• Clips (1-
(1-2mins.)
• High Resolution picture/
picture/graphics
• Real Time Voice over IP
• Triplay Broadband
• DVB-
DVB-H
• Video/Audio Steaming • Full album MP3 Downloads
• Enhanced MMS
• Clips (1-
(1-2mins.)
• Text and Audio Books with
Graphics
• Gaming,
Gaming, Music & Photo
• Audio / Video Downloading
clips(<10 sec)
• Web browsing
• Entertainment
• Corporate Apps
• MS Office
Applications.
Applications.
• Wireless PDA

• Email Text (No Attachments)

Attachments)
• Text Formating
• Picture Messaging,Graphics
• Diagrams,Sound
Diagrams,Sound
• Animations
• Image format GIF,JPEG

• MMS
• Interactive
Messaging
• Texting
• Forms based
Applications User Data rates
10 20 50 100 200 > Kbps

Figure 4. Mapping of Wireless Data Services to ideal bit rates

HSPA will stimulate many new applications, a large number of which have yet to be introduced or conceived. As an
extrapolation of today’s usage patterns, it can be expected that new applications in the following areas will present in the
market.

High-Speed Internet Access

With HSPDA offering similar speeds to most DSL connections, with the added value of ubiquitous mobility, UMTS can
be expected to become to preferred connection medium for a range of users, whether it be via a laptop or a handheld
terminal.

Voice over IP
Voice is clearly not a new application but when delivered over IP and coupled with other interactive media such as video
and text, this new service mix will become very attractive.

Multi-player Gaming
The improved interactivity of the networks supporting HSPA is expected to have a significant impact on the mobile
gaming industry. Multi-user games, whether broadband or narrowband will benefit from the real time interactivity that
will be possible and the end user experience will be significantly enhanced.

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Improving Existing applications
HSPA will improve the end user experience for the many existing applications. The improvement in speed and
interactivity will make a significant difference to many applications which previously appeared to be slow or tedious. The
most often cited example of this will be the corporate email service based on Microsoft Outlook, where there is
significant communication between the device and the server which in high latency networks can make the service appear
slow. With the arrival of HSPA and the improvements in system latency, there will be major improvements and it is
expected that the end user perception will be significantly improved.

Figure 5: HSDPA Capability per 3GPP Category

Streaming Live TV
With the increased capacity of HSPA networks, more streaming services can be offered to more and more users. These
TV streaming services have already shown themselves to be extremely popular in many markets and this trend can be
repeated and improved on with HSPA.

Video Telephony and Conferencing

Video conferencing or the delivery of multiple video streams to a single terminal will become more feasible now that the
video services can be delivered using an IP stream.

Driving new usage patterns

With an improved experience to the end-user for mobile data services, and an improved cost of delivery for the operator,
the market is expected to demonstrate some significantly new behavioral and usage patterns.
These behaviors can be placed in a number of categories;
• New mobile business behaviors,
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 • New Peer to Peer application behaviors,
• New Mobile commerce behaviors.

For business users, it is expected that HSPA will drive significantly different usage patterns. In particular the usage of
mobile email which is now synonymous with the Blackberry device, is today restricted to the text of an email and the
attachments are discarded. This can be expected to change as networks and mobile devices become truly broadband and
the storage capabilities of devices continue to increase. The use of the corporate intranet while mobile is expected to
increase as HSPA enables a user experience which closer approximates to that of WLAN, while adding the extra benefit
of ubiquitous mobility.

Peer to Peer applications drive the mobile industry. Whether it is voice or text, the desire for people to communicate with
each other is insatiable and as HSPA rolls out and offers more users a broadband IP connection, the peer to peer
possibilities will increase significantly. As well as communicating via voice and text, the end-user will use the same IP
stream to communicate potentially by video, by sharing photos, by sharing presence information and by opening a
gaming session. Just as text messaging and mobile email have driven the last major changes in end-user behavior
patterns, peer to peer IP multimedia services offer the next major user behavior revolution. HSPA will be a key enabler of
this revolution.

For mobile commerce, the increased omnipresence of mobile data will stimulate the purchasing opportunities for the end-
users. As i-Tunes has demonstrated, using consumer media while mobile meets our lifestyle demands and there is little
reluctance to purchase this media over the internet. This offers a major opportunity to operators and content creators, as
well as delivering an improved mobile experience to the end-user.

HSPA Availability
In March 2003, HSDPA was introduced in 3GPP Release 5 Specifications and the final and stable specifications were
finally agreed in June 2004.
The first set of standards for E-DCH, or HSUPA, was approved in December 2004. However, corrections have still to be
done and the final version of 3GPP Specifications for HSUPA is expected in December 2005.

The first demonstrations of HSDPA technology were made in the final months of 2004. The 3GSM conference in Cannes
in February 2005 was where the first public demonstrations of the technology were made by infrastructure and terminal
vendors together. By summer 2005 (the initial publishing date of this paper) commercial terminals in the form of data
cards for PCs were available. These data cards support connection speed of up to 1.8Mbit/s and will be category 12
terminals. It is expected that the first handset form factor terminals will be available during the first half of 2006. A wider
variety of handsets are expected to become available at the beginning of the second half of the year. These commercial
handsets are expected to be category 6. In each case network infrastructure is expected to be in place and capable of
supporting these terminals and that commercial service will be launched during 2006 in many markets.

The first HSUPA terminals are expected to become commercially available in the first half of 2007.

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HSPA Evolution
With all areas of the wireless industry developing rapidly, it has become necessary for the UMTS industry and its
constituent member to provide it’s vision for the long term evolution of UMTS networks and services. The 3GPP has
been active to provide a vision of this evolution through its activities. Indeed, important milestones were achieved in
3GPP Release 6 with IMS, HSDPA enhancements, HSUPA, WLAN integration and IP Transport.
For Release 7 of the 3GPP specifications a number of key objectives have been set in place;

• IP Centric,
• VoIP,
• High peak data rate, up to 50Mbit/s
• Reduced latency with 20 ms to 40 ms of Round Trip Delay.
The Preliminary activities started in March 2005 and the completion of the standards is expected for mid 2007.

Conclusion
HSPA defines a series of straight forward upgrades to UMTS R99 networks which will offer improvements of a factor of
ten in the speed of service delivery, improvements of a factor of five in network capacity and a significant improvement
in service latency. HSPA refers to improvements in both the downlink and uplink of the radio access network, known as
HSDPA and HSUPA respectively. New terminals are required to support these capabilities and the first terminals for
HSDPA will be available at the end of 2005 and are expected to be category 6 terminals, capable of supporting up to
3.6Mbit/s.
HSPA will thus offer cost effective wide-area broadband mobility and play a significant role in stimulating the demand
for data services, whether they be consumer multimedia and gaming or corporate email and mobile access.

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Acronym List
ADSL Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line

AMC Adaptive Modulation and Coding

E-DCH Enhanced Dedicated Channel

GERAN GSM Edge Enhanced Radio Access Network

HARQ Hybrid Automatic Response reQuest

HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access

HS-DSCH High Speed Downlink Shared Channel

HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access

MIMO Multiple-Input Multiple-Output

QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

RNC Radio Network Controller

SF-16 Spreading Factor 16

TTI Transmission Time Interval

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

WiMax Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

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